Dean’s List 2020

One of UIC Engineering’s top priorities was to ensure a high-quality learning experience for every student this fall. Faculty members adapted curriculum delivery for remote learning, generating ideas to effectively teach and engage students online. A few lab-based courses are still being taught on campus in a safely distanced way.

U.S. universities expressed concern that the coronavirus and the primarily online classroom environment would dissuade young people from starting or continuing their education. That was not the case at UIC Engineering: 4,173 undergraduate students are enrolled full-time this semester, representing a 4.25-percent increase over fall 2019.

UIC engineering and computer science faculty have 216 research projects underway, reinforcing the College’s commitment to discovery and knowledge generation. These projects are backed by $111.7 million in funding, a nearly 20-percent increase over last year.

Break Through Tech Chicago, our computer science department’s Melinda Gates-supported initiative to close the gender gap in tech, held its first two programs to introduce non-majors to computer science: a Summer Guild program and a 4-week session of the CS 100 course.

Leading the way toward more efficient energy storage, Amin Salehi-Khojin, an associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, discovered a combination of materials that makes powerful lithium-carbon dioxide batteries fully rechargeable.

Dental clinics pose a unique risk to the spread of viruses such as COVID-19. UIC MIE and ECE faculty are studying ultrafine aerosols and developing ways to keep dental tools from producing or spraying these particles. UIC’s College of Dentistry plans to implement their findings.

How did people’s values influence their attitudes about localized stay-at-home orders during the pandemic? Three computer science faculty developed algorithms to analyze sentiments expressed on social media and determine those attitudes’ impact on the health crisis.

COVID-19 research was a hallmark of many UIC Engineering labs this spring and summer. Two additional examples: chemical engineering Assistant Professor Sangil Kim developed a washable respirator mask, and computer science Professor Venkat Venkatakrishnan built a framework for making contact-tracing apps more secure.

Two faculty won National Science Foundation CAREER awards in the last year: ECE Assistant Professor Hulya Seferoglu will investigate applications in distributed edge computing systems and CS Assistant Professor Brent Stephens will seek to reinvent the scaling of application performance. A total of 44 College of Engineering faculty have won the prestigious CAREER award.

A team of students took first place at the most recent BuiltWorlds Hackathon. Students won other awards, too, including one who was recognized for her STEM outreach efforts and a group of undergraduates who designed a wearable device to reduce jaw clenching.